Blue roundup: How will 2014 playoffs impact independent Cougars?

Taysom Hill (4) of the Brigham Young Cougars celebrates scoring BYU's only touchdown during NCAA football in Boise, Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. More details about the new postseason format coming in 2014 are emerging. But will BYU, as an indepedent, be unaccounted for in this process?

"BYU is clearly the most significant program that could be impacted out of a group of a possible five independents in 2014 when the playoff begins," writes CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd. "It has the highest profile, largest budget and biggest commitment to football among the indies. BYU is the only non-BCS school to win a national championship in the wire service era. (Army was considered a major power when it won in the 1940s.) A seventh playoff bowl still in the works would match the highest-ranked team from the so-called Group of Five (Mountain West, Conference USA, Sun Belt, MAC, Big East) against a team from the Pac-12, Big-12 or possibly others. That leaves those independents as the only schools without 'contract' access to a playoff bowl if they don't finish in the top four. With up to eight spots accounted for in those contract bowls owned by the major conferences — for now, Rose, Orange, Champions — the independents only entry point would be in the three other access — or 'open' — bowls. Schools playing in those access bowls would have to reach a standard (top 12, top 14 most likely) to get in. Whether any of the independents, besides BYU, would have that chance is unlikely given their history. In 2013, the other independents are likely to be Army, Navy, New Mexico State and Idaho."

Popular Comments

"But will BYU, as an independent, be
unaccounted for in the process?" Is unaccounted for a synonym for
irrelevant? To answer the question No - they will be accounted for and given as
much credit as is
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3:23 p.m. Oct. 1, 2012

Top comment

UtahBlueDevil

Durham, NC

Ok... I know it is monday, and I have a cracking headache... but isn't
there a little known indie called Notre Dame who has won the national title more
than once, has a rather large commitment to football... that is being excluded
from this
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Jeff Call has been a sportswriter for the Deseret News since 1997. He is the BYU beat writer and has been covering Cougar sports since 1993, when he served as sports editor at the Daily Universe. Call has written several more ..